Maybe you have not thought about it before--game is not only for pure fun, but is also a good tool for thinking and educating. In fact, our game E.coli War has many deep meanings for us to explore. For example, we have found it really interesting when we compare our game theories with typical historical events.
    When a player manages to conclude some theories about how to win the game, he will find that the war between our little bacteria is very similar to the war between empires in history. Different ways of initializing bacteria symbolize different eras. The growth and kinds of bacteria symbolize the changing of dynasty. They wisdom and strategies a player conclude is like the wisdom that is needed by the rulers of a kingdom.
    What's more, the game can also help us in considering spatial factors' effects on population interactions (For example, discoveries metioned below) and even promoting synthetic biology.
    Now let us take a look about different discoveries that we conclude. (In movies, the yellow ones are from side A(left) while the blue ones are from side B(right))

    In this case, there are no warriors on either side. Therefore, the initial position of where to set the bacteria accounts the most. The following movie shows the situation where both sides own the same amount of bacteria: side A has 4 farmers while side B has 2 farmers and 2 beggars. If side A initializes its bacteria in the middle of media, then they can easily win.

Discovery
1. The more diligent members, the stronger the whole group
    More Farmers is much better than more beggars. Farmers can produce food for the whole country, while beggars are too lazy to do anything.
    In ecosystems, there exists a kind of character called cheaters, which is similar to our beggars here. If there are too many cheaters in a population, the population grows slower and becomes weaker.
    In human history, we can see that if the people who have power have wisdom and are diligent, the country will be prosperous. If the people who have power are lazy, the development of the country will be slow.
2. Positioning is important
    When there are no warriors on either side, the importance of a good geographical position is noticeable. In this case, if you initialize your bacteria in the middle, then you will find there is more space for your bacteria’s growth.
    In human society, plains are good for agriculture while mountainous regions or plateausare not. If a country owns more plains, it is easier to support more people.
3. Be prepared for danger in times of safety
    When there are no warriors, we came into a flourishing era, or maybe we can call this era a heyday. We can see that even in heyday, the competition still exist, so our E.coli here still have to make their best to compete.
    In human history, a ruler still needs wisdom to rule his kingdom well or manage to lead his kingdom exceeds the other in his heyday. The proverb that ‘Be prepared for danger in times of safety’ is a famous sentence in ancient China for the rulers not to lower their guards.

     (1)In this case, both sides own the same number of bacteria: 5 farmers and 3 warriors. The following movie shows that when farmers are more than warriors, farmers grow so fast that they quickly surround the warriors.

Discovery
Strategies for managing the military force is important
    Intelligent players need to think up smart ideas of initialization to help their warriors living at the edge of their bacteria population and not far away from the enemies. Where the warriors are placed in the middle of the farmers or far away from the enemies, it would be hard for them to fight the enemies. Only in this way can warriors fight againstenemies efficiently.
    During World War II, France was badly attacked by Germany. French placed its main military force on the east, but Germans attacked from the North. From this famous event, we can see how important strategies are.

     (2) In this case, side A owns 5 farmers and 5 warriors, while side B owns 8 farmers. B loses the war because of insufficient warriors.In the following movie, if one sides increase the ratio of warriors, he can easily win.

Discovery
The strength of military force is important
    The number of warriors is obviously important .It can be seen that the winning of a war relies a lot on the number of our our warriors. Even though the farmers from A side is fewer, the warriors from side A can help “robbing” the nutrients from side B.
    In human society, remember the military force is always the first place a ruler should consider. The Song Dynasty of China was a comparatively wealthy country. However, because the military force of the Song Dynasty was relatively weak, it was turned over by nomads whose military force was stronger. Although the nomads were not wealthy or even had not enough food to eat, they could get all of these from the Song Dynasty.
    Anyway, military force should always be put in the first place.

    In this case, both sides own the same amount of bacteria, but side A has two bases while side B has only one. The following movie shows that side A wins because of one more bacteria base.

Discovery
Don’t put all the eggs in one basket
    In this case, it is smarter to establish distributed bases rather than concentrated bases. More bases are needed as they can bring more space for the growth of bacteria.
    Many people feel that the best strategy is to concentrate the military force and rout the enemy forces one by one. However, this is not always the case. Contrary to our intuition, sometimes it works better if we scatter the military forces wisely. Chairman Mao, the founding father of China, knows this very well and used it a lot in many guerilla warfares.

    In this case, both sides own the same amount of bacteria. But side A sets some warriors and farmers as “undercover agents” around B’s bacteria. The following movie shows this process. A’s “undercover agents” quickly surround and eliminate B’s bacteria.

Discovery
The easiest way to capture a fortress is from within
    As we can see, A’s “undercover agents” quickly surround and eliminate B’s bacteria. This is also a good example of showing how important the strategy is.
    As the old saying in China goes, the easiest way to capture a fortress is from within. This strategy is also mentioned in the book Master Sun’s art of War, the most famous book on war in ancient China.This game tells the similar story. In history, we find that the seemingly indestructible empires were always ruined by troubles that arise from within but not outside.
    Don’t be afraid of playing chess in your enemies’ home! Maybe you are only one step away from success!

    In this case, both sides own the same amount of bacteria. We can see it is interesting that A’s farmers grow fast firstly at first but are killed by B’ lethal warriors after a while.

Discovery
He who laughs last laughs best
    In the first 20 seconds, we can see that the amount of E.coli in side A is apparently larger. However, in the following 30 seconds, we can see that B’s warriors attack the E.coli from A and eventually get the victory. In this case, A’s farmers grow fast firstly but are killed faster by B’ lethal warriors after a while.
    We can often see similar conditions in real life. Someone maybe a nobody in his youth, but a somebody when his is old. At the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, many people might thought that Britain would probably be the winner as its military force seems stronger. However, after the 8-year war, American eventually won the war.
    He who laughs last laughs best. We should not lower our guard even if we are at an advantage.

    In this case, the amount of warriors in A is larger than the amount in B. One interesting thing about this situation is that warrior A stays very close to warrior B. We can see that side A wins very fast.

Discovery
Destroy the core figures and the gang will collapse
    We can see that warrior A stays very close to warrior B at the beginning. Warrior B is the key figure in side B as farmer B does not threaten side B and we win the game if we can kill warrior B. In this case, warrior A kills warrior B first so that side A wins very fast.
    There is a very famous book on war in China called Thirty-Six Strategies. One of the most important strategies mentioned in this book is called “Destroy the core figures and the gang will collapse”. This strategy is widely used in wars as we know that if you catch the general from your enemy side, you control the war.

    In this case, the amount of warrior A and warrior B are the same. Warrior B is surrounded by warrior A so warrior B has no place to flee. Warrior A wins the game.

Discovery
Catch the thief by blocking his escape route
    We can see that warrior B is surrounded by warrior A at first. Although their amounts are equal, as warrior B has no where to escape, all of them eventually get killed by warrior A.
    There is a very famous proverb in China saying that “Catch the thief by blocking his escape route”, which is also from the book Thirty-Six Strategies mentioned above. There are countless wars in China as well as in the rest of war that contain this idea.

    The main method for historians to study historical events is by gathering materials and summarizing the strategies and theories from them. However, it is hard to test whether these strategies are true or not and under what conditions we can use them.
    Here, we use our game based on the simplified bacterial system and test many strategies our ancestors summarize. We find that most of the strategies are true but a few are not. Besides, we also get some novel conclusions that are seemingly counter-intuitive and some key points that are seemingly insignificant.
    Our system makes it possible to test the previous strategies and wisdom as well as discover new ideas.Therefore, we think that our game also provide a new angle for people to study history as they can use our system to mimic the events happened in history.
    Moreover, these discoveries are heuristic in helping us considering spatial effects on results of population interactions.
    My deer wiki viewer, you are intelligent and wise. If you pay attention, you will definitely find and create more strategies to win. When we provided this game to the kids during our exhibition in China Science and Technology Museum, they came up with many new ideas and some of the strategies we mentioned above are even ideas from them! We believe that there are many more values for us to discover, so come and play the game!(link to Solid game)